GIFT  OF 


THE 
PURPOSE  OF  LIFE 


By 

JAMES  A.  WALTERS 


Published  for  the  Welden  Book  Co. 
1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1922 

BY 
JAMES  A.  WALTERS 


HAMMOND     PRESS 

W.  B.  CONKEY  COMPANY 

CHICAGO 


©ear  C&iforen 


WILLIAM  ELDON, 

MARGARET,  ESTHER, 

and  FRANCES  LOUISE  WALTERS 

This  Little  Volume  is  Affectionately 
Dedicated  by  the  Author 


5034.  >., 


PREFACE 

IN  presenting  this  little  volume  to  the  public,  I 
am  only  using  the  printed  page,  that  I  may 
reach  a  larger  number  of  people  than  would  be 
possible  in  any  other  way ;  and  for  the  same  reason 
that  I  would  awaken  a  sleeping  family  in  a  burn- 
ing dwelling,  or  wave  a  danger  signal  over  a 
burning  trestle,  at  the  approach  of  a  railway 
train. 

Without  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  individual 
or  world,  is  lost,  and  that  Spirit  is  love;  and  the 
only  times  Christ  was  not  all  tenderness  and  com- 
passion, was  when  dealing  with  hypocrisy  and 
Pharisaism. 

This  world  is  a  most  beautiful  home  for  the 
human  race,  the  possibilities  of  which  are  as  yet 
scarcely  suspected.  The  blessing  of  God  is  on  it 
all,  and  only  the  ignorance,  selfishness,  and  lazi- 
ness of  man  have  failed  to  appropriate  all  of 
God's  bounty  to  supply  every  need. 

A  box  of  flowers  in  the  window,  a  well-kept 
yard  or  lawn,  a  thrifty,  well-tilled  garden  or  farm, 


6        -''< ' ;/ ;  •*' « •  * r<  ' '  Preface 

all  may  be  an  act  of  worship,  and  a  pleasure  to 
our  loving  heavenly  Father,  helping  Him  to 
make  a  beautiful  world;  but  many  are  depriving 
themselves  of  the  greatest  blessing  of  all — the 
privilege  of  little  children  in  their  homes.  The 
highest  adornment  of  the  world  is  happy,  light- 
hearted,  care-free  children. 

The  proper  appreciation  and  care  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  home  bring  more  wholesome  disci- 
pline to  the  parents  than  any  other  one  thing  in 
the  whole  course  of  human  life.  And  the  powers 
God  has  given  to  the  men  and  women  of  the 
world,  if  perverted  to  a  base  use,  will  be  followed 
by  the  direct  punishment,  to  be  meted  out  to  base 
impenitent  souls. 

It  is  only  out  of  my  love  for  the  souls  of  men 
and  women,  that  I  have  given  the  consent  of  my 
mind  to  write  and  publish  this  book.  And  any 
good  that  it  may  accomplish  is  all  due  to  an  in- 
dulgent, loving,  heavenly  Father,  who  bought  me 
with  the  blood  of  His  only  Son,  Jesus. 

JAMES  A.  WALTERS. 
Kewanna,  Indiana, 
Aug.  14,  1922. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PURPOSE  OF  LIFE 

WHEN  we  go  out  and  look  at  the  sun  in  all  his 
gorgeous  splendor,  the  moon  in  her  silvery  bright- 
ness, or  the  stars  in  their  sparkling  beauty,  we 
marvel  and  ask  of  ourselves  the  question, 
"Wherefore  this  wondrous  display?"  And  why 
are  they  there?  Of  ourselves  the  only  reply  comes 
back,  Why? 

When  we  travel  over  the  Earth  (either  in  im- 
agination or  in  reality),  and  see  the  wondrous 
variety  spread  out  before  us,  lakes  and  rivers, 
mountains  and  valleys,  great  seas  of  forest, 
prairie  or  water  ever  in  varying  contrast,  we  ask 
again,  Why?  and  the  echoing  answer  again 
comes  back,  Why?  In  imagination  again  we  view 
the  world  with  its  teeming  millions  of  people,  in 
numbers  too  great  for  the  human  mind  to  com- 
prehend and  again  we  ask  the  time-old  question, 
Why? 

The  mind  of  man  refuses  to  be  convinced  that 
these  have  always  existed,  that  they  are  intermin- 

7 


8  :  '2%*  -Purpose  of  Life 

able.  There  must  have  been  a  beginning,  and  if 
a  beginning  a  cause,  and  if  a  cause  a  purpose. 

We  view  the  great  cities  that  man  has  built,  the 
long  railroads,  the  telegraph  and  telephone  lines, 
the  flocks  and  herds  of  men,  the  splendid  farms 
and  homes,  the  great  ships  that  plow  the  seven 
seas  with  their  cargoes  of  goods  or  men,  and  again 
the  great  interrogation  of  time  is  Why?  and 
echoing  back  from  the  invisible  of  Eternity  is  the 
one  inevitable  reply,  Why?  We  are  ever  seeking, 
but  to  the  human  mind  alone  the  great  secret  is 
forever  closed. 

In  this  world  of  ours  the  very  lowest  of  animal 
life  acts  only  by  purpose.  The  larva  in  the  water 
as  the  fly  that  floats  over  its  surface,  or  the  fishes 
that  swim  beneath,  each  and  all  have  a  purpose  in 
every  movement  and  as  we  ascend  the  scale  of 
animate  life,  the  birds  and  animals,  the  beasts  of 
the  forest  or  the  flocks  and  herds  on  the  plains, 
all  have  a  purpose  in  every  action — self-preserva- 
tion or  pleasure. 

What  of  man?  In  view  of  the  testimony  of  all 
the  lower  world,  shall  we  dare  to  say  that  man, 
the  highest  even  of  our  animal  world,  would  act 
without  a  purpose,  our  intelligence  would  reject 
such  a  statement  without  a  question. 


The  Purpose  of  Life  9 

The  framers^nf  thp  npngfitnfi'on  of  our  great 
countfyTiad  solved  that  question  in  the  affirma- 
tiv^TlhaTjnaji  does  ha^£_a.  motive  in  every  act. 
anoTEEey^stated  that  motive  in  unequivocal  terms. 
Happiness  and  the  pursuit  of  this  purpose  is 
the  inalienable  right  of  every  man  and  this  great 
government  of  ours  with  all  its  vast  machinery  is 
organized  and  perpetuated  with  that  sole  end  in 
view.  True,  if  one  man  wishes  to  promote  his 
happiness  at  the  expense  of  another  man's  happi- 
ness he  is  going  beyond  his  right  and  the  guaran- 
tee of  his  country  and  thereby  makes  himself  a 
subject  for  restraint. 

If  we_  grant  a  purgosejn  nrtioft-4e-4he-4owe«t^ 
of  animate  life  and  all  the  way  up  the  scale  of 
being  to  man,  and  to  man  himself,  have  we  less 
reason  to  grant  a  purpose  to  the  intelligence  that 
created  them  and  all  the  universe  that  we  observe? 

We  have  not  yet  attempted  to  name  the  power, 
but  from  the  harmony  which  we  observe  through 
all  the  works  of  nature  we  are  wont  to  admit  that 
that  power  is  intelligent. 

But  man  in  his  observation  of  his  own  weakness 
and  frailty  in  conflict  with  many  of  the  powers 
of  nature  is  not  always  inclined  to  attribute  to  that 
power  of  creation  a  beneficent  attitude  toward 


10  The  Purpose  of  Life 

himself.  So  we  find  in  the  mind  of  the  untutored 
or  undeveloped  man,  a  fear  or  dread  of  the  un- 
seen Creator.  But  happily  for  the  race,  among  all 
people  there  have  been  a  few  more  intelligent  in 
mind  and  nobler  in  spirit  through  whom  that  infi- 
nite mind  could  communicate  to  the  others  of 
mankind. 

We  are  wont  to  give  these  men  the  name  of 
prophets,  or  seers.  And  the  very  highest  of  these 
have  given  us  a  book  or  books  that  we  call  the 
Book  of  God.  Man  no  longer  gropes  in  darkness, 
for  this  book  has  revealed  to  us  the  Being  which 
we  call  God,  who  created  all  things  that  we  ob- 
serve. 

Its  opening  statement  is,  "In  the  beginning 
God  created."  The  statement  is  clean  cut,  and 
plain,  but  man  with  his  pigmy  intellect  has  ever 
been  trying  to  pry  off  the  lid  to  see  how  He  did 
it,  and  if  they  get  but  one  tiny  peep  they  look 
around  on  the  others  of  the  world  and  with  a 
knowing  wink  say,  "I've  got  the  secret.  I  know 
all  about  it,"  and  then  follows  their  elaboration 
which  they  call  science  and  then  claim  to  the 
world  that  it  did  not  require  a  God  to  do  that,  for 
if  they  just  had  the  material  they  could  do  almost 
as  well.  But,  if  they  will  just  furnish  the  material 


The  Purpose  of  Life  11 

out  of  which  worlds  and  suns  and  moons  and  stars 
are  made,  the  rest  of  us  might  admit  with  some 
reservations  that  they  might.  Might!  Might! 
Well,  they  might  fail  even  then. 

We  have  the  world,  the  sun,  moon  and  stars — 
all  the  things  in  the  world,  and  man.  As  yet  we 
have  not  discerned  one  purpose  of  it  all.  We 
search  the  book  God  has  given  us  and  He  soon 
tells  us  that  man  was  the  object  of  his  creation, 
the  world  was  his  home;  the  sun  to  give  light  by 
day,  the  moon  and  stars  by  night;  that  the  ele- 
ments, sunshine  and  rain,  heat  and  cold,  and  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  were  to  work  together  to  pro- 
duce enough  for  his  care.  All  the  beasts  and  ani- 
mals, birds  of  the  air  and  fishes  in  the  water  were 
for  man's  use,  but  what  about  man?  Of  what  use 
was  he?.  For  what  purpose?  Ah!  here  we  come 
up  to  the  rocky  precipice,  a  stone  wall  mountain 
high. 

God  gave  to  man  the  authority  of  dominion 
over  every  living  thing  and  latent  powers  to  use 
the  forces  of  nature  for  his  benefit,  but  even  this 
dominion  would  not  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  God 
to  create  a  world  and  place  in  it  a  creature  of 
man's  capacity. 

If  man  were  only  an  animal  of  superior  intelli- 


12  The  Purpose  of  Life 

gence  to  all  other  animals,  to  have  dominion  over 
all  creation,  that  might  satisfy  man's  reason  for 
existence,  but  man  being  a  spiritual  being  des- 
tined to  live  throughout  all  eternity,  we  must  look 
to  a  higher  purpose  to  satisfy  the  mind  of  our 
Creator.  So  then  we  must  search  further  in  this 
Book  of  God,  that  possibly  He  has  revealed  his 
purpose  in  our  creation. 

Can  the  mind  of  man  go  no  higher?  Is  it 
sacrilege  to  try  to  fathom  the  purposes  of  the 
Infinite?  /Must  man  go  on  groping  in  darkness 
through  trie  ages,  come  into  life  a  helpless  babe 
to  be  nurtured  and  cherished  by  loving  hands 
through  infancy  and  childhood,  struggle  through 
young  life  to  acquire  an  education  to  gain  a  liv- 
ing for  a  wife,  to  beget  more  children,  to  repeat 
the  process  that  has  just  gone  before,  and  so  on 
over  and  over,  again  and  again,  with  no  outlook, 
groping  his  way  as  a  blind  man  in  the  glare  of 
the  noonday  sun  ?"\Thousands  and  millions  have 
walked  this  way  frpm  the  dawn  of  time,  many 
growing  weary  have  fallen  by  the  way  ere  the 
journey  was  well  begun;  many  more,  restless  un- 
der the  restraints  of  civil  life  have  sought  out 
many  devices  and  inventions  to  while  away  their 
time,  and  almost  invariably  these  diversions  are 


The  Purpose  of  Life  13 

in  one  way  or  another  detrimental  to  the  welfare 
of  themselves  or  others,  their  fellowmen  also  on 
the  journey  of  life.  And  in  this  conflict  what  fur- 
nishes pleasure  to  one  may  destroy  the  pleasure 
of  another.  This  is  indeed  a  gloomy  picture  of 
the  human  race.  Sunk  in  despair  longing  for  the 
end,  only  to  be  repeated  in  the  life  of  another,  or 
recklessly  indulging  in  worldly  pleasure  until  the 
frail  form  falls  exhausted  and  life  goes  out  like  a 
burned-out  candle.  In  view  of  this  interminable 
round  we  again  ask,  Is  there  no  purpose?  Does 
not  God  care?  Does  He  take  delight  in  man's 
distress? 

Our  very  intelligence  cries  out,  "No."  Is  there 
then  a  way  out  of  this  wilderness  of  which  our 
forefathers  sang,  "This  world's  a  wilderness  of 
woe"? 

We  look  again  into  God's  book  and 


have__crpatgd  him  f™*  my  glory,  "-^g.  divine  pur- 
pose to  meet  a  divine  end.  This  is  a  wonderful 
statement  contained  in  so  few  words,  so  very 
brief  that  the  world  has  passed  it  by  unnoticed, 
or  was  it  the  blind  eyes  or  deaf  ears  "that  could 
not  see  or  did  not  hear  the  proclamation  of  God 
that  has  been  ringing  down  the  ages." 

Isaiah  the  great  prophet  of  God  sent  this  mes- 


14  The  Purpose  of  Life 

sage  to  man  more  than  seven  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  when  He 
came,  He  found  the  world  steeped  in  ignorance, 
degradation  and  sin,  the  light  of  God  had  well 
nigh  gone  out,  yet  a  few  noble  souls  there  were 
through  whom  Christ  could  work.  He  gathered 
a  few  of  the  chosen  ones  of  that  number  about 
him  and  laid  before  them  His  plans  for  the  glori- 
ous life  that  was  yet  to  come  to  man  on  this  earth. 
No  more  to  grope  in  darkness  and  fear,  no  more 
to  tread  the  pathway  of  life  as  a  beast  of  burden 
carrying  his  load  till  he  falls  exhausted  at  the  end 
of  the  way;  a  slave  to  his  passions  and  appetites 
that  had  debased  him  below  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  forests,  a  burden  to  himself  and  a  grief  to  his 
Creator. 

Christ  came  proclaiming  a  new  life,  a  new 
birth!  "Born  from  above"  born  of  the  Spirit 
that  came  from  God,  a  Spirit  that  was  God!  So 
wonderful  a  message  could  not  help  but  astonish 
the  world  and  the  most  noble  minds  could  not 
grasp  its  meaning.  Nicodemus,  that  ruler  of  the 
Jews  who  came  to  the  great  Teacher  by  night 
enquiring  of  this  new  life,  could  not  grasp  its 
meaning.  Christ  did  not  see  fit  at  that  time  to  ex- 
plain, but  left  him  to  ponder  this  great  truth  dur- 


The  Purpose  of  Life  15 

ing  the  days  to  come.  No  doubt  this  statement 
was  handed  from  one  of  Christ's  followers  to 
another  until  all  knew  it  well,  yet  none  dared  ask 
Him  the  meaning. 

He  told  them  that  the  life  he  came  to  give  was 
a  great  mystery.  "The  wind  bloweth  where  it 
listeth,  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof  but  cannot 
tell  whence  it  cometh  nor  whither  it  goeth.  So 
is  everyone  that  is  born  of  the  spirit.'' 

Christ  likened  himself  to  a  vine.  That  was  a 
land  of  vineyards,  and  all  were  familiar  with  the 
vine,  and  when  He  said,  "Ye  are  the  branches" 
they  understood  that  he  expected  them  to  bear 
fruit,  but  no  one  yet  was  able  to  tell  them  what 
that  fruit  was  to  be,  and  when  he  again  told  them 
"Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit,"  He  was  then  beginning  to  show  them 
a  God-given  purpose  in  their  lives,  glorifying 
the  Father,  the  same  as  Isaiah  had  stated  seven 
hundred  years  before.  But  what  was  the  fruit  to 
be,  and  how  borne?  The  mind  and  heart  of  man 
was  not  yet  ready  to  receive  all  of  God's  won- 
drous plan  for  the  human  race.  Their  eyes  had 
been  darkened  and  their  ears  deaf  too  long  to 
see  all  the  light  or  to  hear  his  voice  as  yet. 

Men's  hearts  grew  hard  and  their  minds  cruel. 


16  The  Purpose  of  Life 

Christ,  betrayed  and  denied  by  His  own  followers, 
led  to  the  cross,  gave  up  His  life,  was  buried  and 
all  seemed  over.  Had  He  remained  away  but  a 
few  brief  months  His  followers  would  have  scat- 
tered and  the  work  of  a  lifetime  would  have  been 
lost.  But  no !  He  had  told  them  He  would  come 
forth  from  the  grave  and  meet  them  again.  Their 
hope  in  this  promise  was  very  weak,  but  some 
hoped  against  hope,  and  soon  he  stood  among 
them,  confirming  His  promise;  gave  them  their 
commission  to  proclaim  this  life  in  Jesus  by  the 
new  birth  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  was  promised 
on  condition  of  obedience,  ten  days  hence.  But 
none  as  yet  were  able  to  point  the  way  of  a 
"Glorified  Father." 

God  was  watching  over  the  new  kingdom  He 
had  established  in  the  world,  and  realized  He  had 
need  of  one  of  greater  penetration  of  mind  and 
more  aggressive  spirit  to  carry  forward  the  work. 

Who  shall  it  be?  Ah!  there  goes  a  man  with  a 
rope  in  one  hand  and  a  parchment  in  the  other, 
striding  along  with  determination  in  every  move- 
ment. Whither  bound?  On  the  work  of  God? 
No !  On  the  work  of  sin,  going  down  to  Damascus 
to  bind  and  drag  back  to  Jerusalem  the  humble 
followers  of  Christ  who  had  fled  from  their  perse- 


The  Purpose  of  Life  17 

cutors,  bringing  them  back  to  be  stoned  to  death 
or  hanged,  for  their  faith  in  Christ. 

But,  hark!  A  blinding  flash  of  lightning,  a 
voice  from  the  cloud  and  the  arrestor  is  arrested. 
Face  about,  I  want  you  for  a  purpose,  the  pur- 
pose of  God  again  revealed. 

Paul,  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  the 
great  writer  to  the  churches,  and  in  these  letters 
he  now  reveals  the  full  purpose  of  God  for  all 
men,  and  how  is  it  possible  for  man  to  compre- 
hend that  purpose? 

Paul  in  writing  to  the  Church  at  Rome  felt 
the  need  of  impressing  on  them  the  duties  of  the 
new  life  in  Christ.  And  that  being  a  country  of 
olive  orchards  he  likened  them  in  their  new  life 
to  a  grafted  olive  tree,  but  reversed  the  process 
to  make  the  teaching  of  Christ  plain  and  told 
them  that  they  were  like  the  wild  olive,  grafted 
into  a  tame  olive  tree,  but  they  were  expected  to 
bear  tame  olives.  In  nature  they  knew  that  that 
could  not  be,  but  when  they  took  the  words  of 
Christ  to  his  disciples  that  "I  am  the  Vine"  He 
also  meant  contrary  to  nature  as  by  nature  they 
were  prone  to  evil  all  the  time,  and  to  live  even 
respectable  lives,  it  took  constant  vigilance  and 
then  failure  was  often  the  result. 


18  The  Purpose  of  Life 

"Remember  that  you  do  not  bear  the  Root,  but 
the  Root  (Himself)  bears  you."  So  they  must 
become  converted  or  changed  by  the  flowing  of 
the  life  of  Christ  through  them.  No  more  their 
own  blood  flowing  through  their  veins,  but  the 
blood  of  Christ.  Ah !  Yes,  we  are  coming  nearer 
to  the  realization  of  the  great  plan  of  God. 

We  must  look  again  into  God's  word  and  here 
Paul  the  great  writer  to  the  Gentiles  is  our  in- 
structor. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Galatians,  he  contrasts  the 
life  of  men  before  his  union  with  Christ  and  the 
life  in  Christ.  The  works  of  the  flesh  are  all  bad, 
all  contrary  to  the  law  of  God,  and  are  positively 
forbidden  to  the  man  or  woman  who  has  been 
joined  to  Christ  by  the  "renewing  of  the  mind." 
Those  then  who  are  united  to  Christ  in  spirit  will 
bring  forth  the  fruit  of  the  spirit  in  order  to 
glorify  the  Father,  and  that  fruit  Paul  tells  the 
Galatians  is  Love,  Joy,  Peace,  Long  Suffering, 
Gentleness,  Goodness,  Faith,  Meekness,  Temper- 
ance, Righteousness  and  Truth.  Against  such 
there  is  no  law;  corroborating  the  statement,  "If 
the  Son  shall  make  you  free  you  shall  be  free  in- 
deed." 

It  would  hardly  seem  necessary  to  add  that 


The  Purpose  of  Life  19 

Christ  said  that  the  tree  could  not  bear  two  kinds 
of  fruit,  "You  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or 
figs  of  thistles,"  neither  the  reverse;  "either  make 
the  tree  good  and  its  fruit  good  or  else  the  tree 
and  the  fruit  bad."  Then  shall  we  allow  to  grow 
in  our  lives  the  works  or  fruits  of  Evil,  Adultery, 
Fornication,  Uncleanness,  Lasciviousness,  Idol- 
atry, Covetousness,  Wrath,  Hatred,  Varience, 
Emulations,  Strife,  Seditions,  Heresy,  Envyings, 
Murder,  Drunkenness,  Revelings  and  such  like, 
a  host  of  other  evils  named  all  through  the  word 
of  God? 

Which  shall  we  do  then,  live  to  the  glory  of 
God  or  bring  dishonor  to  His  cause  and  Name  by 
our  fruitless  lives  and  take  the  chance  of  being 
cut  off  and  cast  into  the  fire?  "If  thou  continue 
in  His  goodness,  otherwise  thou  shall  be  cut  off" 
"for  if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  take 
heed  that  he  also  spare  not  thee."  By  this  he 
refers  to  the  Jews  who  were  rejected  because  of 
unbelief.  Therefore  let  us  hold  onto  God  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  and  bear  fruit  to  His  glory 
that  other  men  may  see  our  good  works,  thereby 
bringing  glory  to  our  King  and  Lord.  It  is  not 
the  desire  of  God  that  any  shall  be  lost,  but  the 
word  does  state  "not  every  one  who  saveth  unto 


20  The  Purpose  of  Life 

me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven." 

"Also,  many  shall  say  unto  me  in  that  day, 
Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy 
Name?  And  in  Thy  Name  cast  out  devils?  And 
in  Thy  Name  done  many  wonderful  works?  And 
then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you! 
Depart  from  me,  ye  workers  of  iniquity,"  Math. 
7:21-25. 

I  This  stern  denunciation  is  explained  by  the  pre- 
ceding verses,  Mat.  16:20,  "Ye  shall  know  them 
by  their  fruits." 

Further,  we  must  accept  Christ,  "for  there  is 
none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men 
whereby  we  must  be  saved." 

Why?  Because  in  our  own  strength  we  cannot 
do  the  things  God  demands  of  us.  But  there  is 
one  God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus.  Further,  "The  car- 
nal mind  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither 
indeed  can  be." 

The  fall  was  complete.  "In  Adam  all  died." 
The  plan  of  salvation  is  perfect.  In  Christ  all 
shall  be  made  alive.  Our  work  in  life  so  simple : 
To  love  God,  to  love  our  fellowmen;  result,  joy 
and  peace  within  our  own  soul. 


The  Purpose  of  Life  21 

To  state  the  purpose  of  God  in  man's  creator 
in  its  simplest  form  is  to  say,  "For  His  Glory." 
The  fulfilling  of  that  purpose  is  to  love  God. 
Love  means  obedience,  "If  you  love  Me,  keep 
My  commandments." 

"Thou  shalt  Love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  mind,  might,  soul  and  strength,  and 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  and  "a  new  command- 
ment I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another  as 
I  have  loved  you."  If  we  can  measure  Christ's 
love  for  sinful  man,  then  we  can  measure  what 
our  love  should  be  to  each  other.  With  love  like 
this,  comes  joy.  Joy  is  the  product  of  Christian 
love. 

Then  follows  peace.  If  we  have  joy  and  peace, 
then  it  naturally  follows  that  suffering  is  easily 
borne,  though  that  suffering  is  long.  Gentle- 
ness, the  emotions  subdued,  by  the  indwelling  of 
love.  Goodness — just  the  state  of  being  good. 
Meekness — not  bold  or  aggressive  toward  others. 
Temperance — just  temperate  in  all  things;  and 
all  attributes  acquired  only  by  our  faith.  Faith 
in  God  as  our  Father  who  loves  us  and  faith  in 
His  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer. 


22  The  Purpose  of  Life 

Let  us  analyze  the  first  precept,  Love. 

"Suffereth  long  -  Patience 

And  is  Kind Kindness 

Envieth  not Generosity 

Vaunteth  not  itself,  is 

not  puffed  up  -    -     -     Humility 
Doth  not  behave  itself 

unseemly  -----  Courtesy 
Seeketh  not  its  own       -  Unselfishness 
Is  not  easily  provoked    -  Good  Temper 
Thinketh  no  evil    -    -    -  Gentleness 
Rejoiceth    not    in    in- 
iquity but  rejoiceth 
in  the  truth  -    -    -    -  Sincerity  and  Honesty 

All  these  attributes  of  the  soul  may  be  attained 
by  any  one;  the  weakest  or  least  intelligent  can 
love  to  his  full  capacity,  and  the  strongest  and 
most  learned,  the  giant  in  intellect,  can  do  no 
more.  So  if  each  have  done  this,  he  has  fulfilled 
the  divine  plan  of  bringing  glory  to  God.  Any- 
thing less  brings  dishonor  or  disgrace  to  our 
heavenly  Father. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  statements,  much 
light  is  thrown  on  many  of  the  statements  of 
our  Lord  that  were  so  radically  different  and 
opposite  to  all  the  teachings  of  man,  previous  to 
his  coming. 


The  Purpose  of  Life  23 

Take  this  one,  "Thou  shalt  love  thine  enemy. 
If  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him;  if  he  thirst, 
give  him  drink."  Now  these  commands  to  the 
natural  man  are  entirely  foreign  to  his  being  but 
even  to  the  saved  man  why  should  He  command 
him  to  love  his  enemy? 

Well,  if  he  were  not  in  sin  he  would  not  be  his 
enemy.  All  men  are  born  in  sin.  They  are  not 
lost  because  of  their  own  sin,  but  sin  because  they 
are  lost,  and  if  they  were  not  lost  they  would  not 
be  our  enemy.  Men  may  differ  in  opinion  or  in 
methods  of  doing  things  who  are  saved  men.  But 
they  do  not  become  the  enemy  of  each  other; 
hence  the  saved  man  must  love  his  enemy.  He 
cannot  do  otherwise  for  he  is  his  lost  brother,  and 
if  he  is  then  saved  he  becomes  his  friend  though 
even  a  rival  in  business  or  some  activity  of  life. 

If  we  profess  to  love  God  and  at  the  same  time 
hate  our  fellowman,  the  Word  tells  us  that  is  an 
impossibility.  "He  that  saith  he  loves  God  and 
hates  his  brother  is  a  liar,"  and  it  is  equally  im- 
possible to  love  our  fellowman  without  we  first 
love  God,  and  if  we  love  God  we  must  accept 
Christ  as  our  Saviour,  our  Redeemer;  must  ac- 
knowledge that  we  are  sinners  and  aliens  from 
God.  "If  ye  are  ashamed  to  confess  Me  before 


24  The  Purpose  of  Life 

men,  My  Father  will  be  ashamed  to  own  you  be- 
fore the  angels  in  heaven." 

The  statement  of  Christ  is,  "Eye  hath  not  seen, 
nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man,  what  the  Lord  hath  prepared  for 
them  that  love  Him."  Our  love  to  God  is  predi- 
cated on  our  love  to  our  fellows. 

If  we  love  not  our  brother  whom  we  have  seen, 
how  can  we  love  God  whom  we  have  not  seen? 
In  such  statements  we  see  that  Leigh  Hunt  was) 
in  his  little  poem  "Abou  Ben  Adhem"  more  than 
half  right. 

ABOU-BEN-ADHEM 

Abou-Ben-Adhem,  (may  his  tribe  increase), 
Awoke  one  night  from  a  deep  dream  of  peace, 
And  saw  within  the  moon-light  in  his  room, 
Making  it  rich  like  a  lily  in  bloom, 
An  angel  writing  in  a  book  of  gold. 

Exceeding  peace  had  made  Ben  Adhem  bold 
And  to  the  presence  in  the  room  he  said 
"What  writest  thou?"  the  vision  raised  its  head 
And  with  a  look  made  of  all  sweet  accord 
Answered  "The  names  of  those  who  love  the  Lord." 

And  is  mine  one,  said  Abou,  "Nay  not  so" 
Replied  the  angel;  Abou  spoke  more  low, 
But  cheerily  still,  and  said  "I  pray  thee  then, 
Write  me  as  one  that  loves  his  fellowman." 


The  Purpose  of  Life  25 

The  angel  wrote  and  vanished,  the  next  night, 

It  came  again  with  a  great  wakening  light, 

And  showed  the  names  whom  love  of  God  had 

blessed, 
And  lo !  Ben-Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest. 

Pg.  S.  100.3. 

"Know  ye  that  the  Lord  He  is  God;  It  is  He  that 
hath  made  us,  and  not  we  ourselves." 

Isah.  43.7.  "I  have  created  him  for  My  glory,  I 
have  formed  him;  (man)  yea  I  have  made  him." 

John  15.8.  "Herein  is  my  Father  glorified  that  he 
bear  much  fruit." 

John  15.16.  "I  have  chosen  you,  that  ye  should 
go  and  bring  forth  fruit." 

Gal.  5.2.  "The  fruit  of  the  spirit  is  love." 

If  then  the  purpose  of  life  is  to  bring  Glory  to 
God  by  our  love  to  Him,  then  to  manifest  that 
love  by  worship  of  Him  is  the  proof  of  that  love, 
then  our  worship  is  a  manifestation  of  that  love, 
and  worship  without  love  is  no  worship  but  hollow 
mockery.  And  his  declaration  that  it  is  an  im- 
possibility to  love  God  and  hate  our  fellowman, 
"He  that  sayeth  he  loves  God  and  hates  his  fel- 
lowman is  a-  liar."  Then  our  salvation  and  accept- 
ance in  heaven  depends  on  our  love  to  our  own 
kind;  and  since  it  is  impossible  to  love  our  enemies 
while  we  are  in  a  sinful  state,  it  becomes  inpera- 
tive  that  we  accept  Christ  and  be  born  of  God  and 
become  new  creatures. 


26  The  Purpose  of  I*fe 

There  is  no  other  way.  The  plan  is  complete 
for  our  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  God  in  this  life, 
thereby  being  fully  prepared  to  fulfill  the  purpose 
of  God  in  the  life  that  is  to  come.  The  comple- 
tion of  this  life  is  but  the  commencement  day  of 
Eternity  where  we  shall  enjoy  forever  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  all  the  celestial  hosts  and  the 
place — the  home  that  Christ  has  gone  to  prepare 
for  us. 

"My  heart  was  heavy,  for  its  trust  had  been  abused; 

Its  kindness  answered  with  foul  wrong. 

So,  turning  gloomily  from  my  fellowman, 

One  summer  Sabbath  day  I  strolled, 

Among  the  green  mounds  of  the  village  burial 
place, 

Where,  pondering  how  all  human  love  and  hate 
find  one  sad  level; 

How  wronged  and  wrongdoer,  each  with  meek- 
ened  face  and  cold  hands, 

Folded  over  a  still  heart 

Must  pass  the  green  threshold  of  one  common 
grave, 

Whither  all  foot-steps  tend,  and  none  depart. 

Awed  for  myself,  and  pitying  my  race, 

Our  common  sorrow,  like  a  mighty  wave 

Swept  all  my  pride  away,  and  trembling,  I  for- 
gave." 

—Whittier. 


CHAPTER  II 

PERSONALITY  OF  GOD 

WHEN  we  now  consider  that  God  created  this 
world  and  fitted  it  as  a  home  for  man  who  was 
designed  for  the  sole  purpose  of  love  to  his  Cre- 
ator and  out  of  that  love  to  come  reverence  and 
worship,  it  throws  light  on  many  of  the  passages 
of  Scripture  that  have  always  been  more  or  less 
veiled  in  obscurity;  and  also  we  get  a  clearer 
vision  of  the  character  or  personality  of  God. 
Take  this  one,  "God  is  love."  Now  an  abstract 
principle  is  hard  to  comprehend,  but  if  we  reason 
from  our  knowledge  of  human  love,  and  that  God 
himself  created  man  that  He  Himself  might 
receive  the  love  of  man  from  choice,  that  is,  that 
men  by  comprehending  the  nature  of  God  would 
choose  to  love  Him  and  obey  His  will. 

How  it  must  have  grieved  a  loving  Father,  as 
we  now  see  Him  when  man  plunged  recklessly 
into  sin,  and  ever  forgetful  that  there  was  a  God 
and  if  there  was  a  God  that  He  was  not  their 
friend,  that  He  was  cruel  and  vindictive,  laying 

27 


28  The  Purpose  of  Life 

on  them  needlessly  heavy  burdens.  We  see  this 
grief  in  the  statement,  "He  repented  that  He 
made  man,"  and  how  His  great  heart  must  have 
throbbed  in  pity  and  sorrow.  When  the  whole 
world  had  gone  so  far  from  Himself  and  so  deep 
in  sin  that  He  determined  to  remove  them  all  by 
the  deluge,  not  in  vindictive  wrath  but  in  pity  and 
compassion  that  He  might  have  the  world  bring 
forth  a  race  of  people  that  would  love  HIM,  not 
from  necessity  but  from  choice,  for  choice  has 
ever  been  man's  prerogative,  "choose  ye,"  has 
ever  been  the  password  into  fellowship  with  God- 
How  pitiful  the  wail  of  a  bereaved  Father  as 
He  refers  to  the  Jews  saying,  "I  took  a  goodly 
vine  and  planted  it  in  a  fertile  field,  placed 
a  wall  about  it  and  tilled  the  land  and  looked  that 
it  should  bring  forth  fruit  and  it  brought  forth 
wild  grapes." 

The  chosen  people  ever  forgetting  God,  going 
off  in  sin,  worshiping  idols,  their  punishment  and 
subsequent  return  to  God,  only  to  again  wander 
away  and  forget  their  Creator,  until  at  last  God 
gave  them  up  as  a  lost  race  as  expressed  in  the 
yearning  grief-stricken  cry  of  the  Saviour  as 
He  looked  over  the  great  and  wicked  city  of 
Jerusalem,  "Oh!  Jerusalem!  Jerusalem!  How 


Personality  of  God  29 

oft  I  have  gathered  you  as  a  hen  gathereth 
her  chickens  under  her  wings  and  ye  would 
not!" 

Then  when  we  know  that  God's  desire  for  love 
is  His  purpose,  how  intense  that  longing  must 
have  been  when  He  gave  His  only  Son  to  wir 
men's  love  to  Himself.  "God  so  loved  the  world 
that  He  gave  His  only  Son,"  not  only  to  draw 
them  back  to  the  love  they  had  forsaken,  but  that 
they  might  be  reborn  into  God's  Kingdom  where 
all  His  subjects  love  Him,  and  to  love  Him  must 
also  love  each  other.  Pure  love  is  essentially  alike, 
whether  in  man  or  God  so  we  may  now  more 
fully  understand  His  saying,  "Inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  did  it  unto  Me."  ; 

Also  what  a  wonderful  revelation  to  us  now 
when  Christ  says,  "I  am  in  My  Father,  and  My 
Father  in  Me,  and  I  in  you,"  all  are  one.  Pure 
love,  heaven.  "Know  ye  not  that  the  Kingdom  of 
heaven  is  within  you?"  David  had  this  vision 
when  he  said,  "  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake 
in  thy  likeness,"  not  as  a  physical  likeness  but  as 
God  had  created  man  "in  our  image"  in  our  like- 
ness. Love,  Heaven,  God.  A  material,  physical 
beauty  could  not  make  a  heaven  however  beauti- 


30  The  Purpose  of  Life 

f  ul.  The  glorious  beauty  as  revealed  in  the  Apoc- 
alypse would  not  be  heaven  were  there  hatred 
there.  What  a  wonderful  plan  God  has  put  in 
operation  through  His  yearning  for  love  of  man ! 
Man !  in  the  image  of  his  Creator  dwelling  for  a 
few  brief  years  in  a  physical  body,  but  a  soul 
that  shall  live  throughout  all  the  Eternities. 
Somewhere  out  in  the  great  unknown  universe  of 
God,  a  place  prepared  for  us  by  our  great  Elder 
Brother,  Christ,  "I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you."  It  may  be  one  of  the  glittering  stars  that 
we  see  nightly  in  all  its  resplendent  beauty,  or  it 
may  be  some  far  more  glorious  place  far  beyond 
our  human  vision  even  with  our  most  powerful 
mechanical  aid.  Why  should  we  not  love  such  a 
God?  But,  the  condition  of  that  love  is,  we  must 
love  our  brother  man  whatever  his  color — black, 
brown,  yellow,  red  or  white.  He  is  God's  creation 
and  our  brother,  and  the  word  says,  "If  we  say 
we  love  God  and  hate  our  brother  we  are  liars." 
And  it  is  no  accident  that  that  is  in  the  last  book 
of  God's  word  and  almost  the  last  chapter  that  it 
is  written,  "and  all  liars  shall  have  their  part  in 
the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone, 
which  is  the  second  death."  But!  love,  through 
the  transforming  power  of  Christ,  to  love  as  He 


Personality  of  God  81 

loved,  what  a  glorious  life,  and  what  a  beautiful 
world  and  what  wonderful  companionship  we 
may  have  as  we  journey  through  this  world  of 
ours  will  be  told  in  the  following  pages. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  MANKIND 

"As  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he." 

WHEREVER  the  Bible  has  gone,  the  story  of  the 
fall  of  man  has  gone. 

The  low  moral  condition  of  the  race  is  every- 
where apparent  to  the  most  casual  observer,  and 
spiritual  life  is  entirely  lacking  except  among  the 
most  favored  people  of  the  world,  and  the  most 
universal  trait  that  is  visible  in  all  the  race  is  a 
desire  to  live,  with  the  least  possible  effort,  and 
only  by  absolute  need  is  the  majority  of  man- 
kind induced  to  labor,  and  among  so  called  civ- 
ilized people  this  tendency  to  shun  labor  often 
culminates  in  open  rebellion.  Not  that  people 
always  know  what  they  are  fighting  for  or 
against,  but  deep  down  in  human  consciousness 
it  is  the  desire  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  world  by  the  least  labor  possible. 
Yet  the  more  thoughtful  of  men  know  that  labor 
is  man's  greatest  blessing,  but  the  why  that  this 
is  so,  is  not  so  readily  discerned. 

52 


The  Emancipation  of  Mankind  33 

In  so-called  Christian  lands  the  story  of  the 
fall  of  man  and  the  consequent  curse  pronounced 
upon  the  race  has  had,  and  i^ow  has,  a  most  bane- 
ful influence  and  men  say  that  toil  is  the  penalty 
of  Adam's  sin,  and  the  thought  is  constantly  pres- 
ent to  devise  some  plan  whereby  to  evade  that 
penalty,  even  though  they  profess  to  be  lovers  of 
God,  the  desire  to  evade  the  penalty  of  another's 
sin  is  constantly  present,  and  this  is  one  of  the 
devil's  subtlest  means  of  defeating  God's  plan 
for  the  race  and  destroying  man's  soul.  Covetous- 
ness  has  its  source  in  the  desire  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  toil  without  effort,  taking  from  the  other  man 
what  he  has  toiled  to  possess  without  giving  him 
in  return  the  opportunity  to  enjoy  the  full  bene- 
fit of  his  own  efforts. 

Herein  lies  the  conflict.  The  strong  desire  to 
enjoy  without  toil,  and  the  weaker  class  must  toil 
without  enjoying.  This  conflict  has  gone  on 
since  the  dawn  of  history  to  the  present,  and 
seems  destined  to  go  on  until  the  end  of  time  un- 
less some  means  shall  be  used  to  dignify  labor 
and  show  that  God  is  a  loving  father,  that  His 
plans  are  perfect,  and  that  He  has  a  high  and 
noble  purpose  in  man;  that  labor  is  working  with 
God  for  man's  good  and  God's  glory.  Such  was 


34  The  Purpose  of  Life 

man  before  his  sin.  He  was  placed  in  a  garden  of 
God's  own  making  and  given  a  commission  as 
overseer  and  husbandman.  Then  came  sin  and 
man  was  driven  out  into  the  world,  a  curse  pro- 
nounced upon  the  land  and  upon  man.  "Cursed 
is  the  ground  for  thy  sake."  "In  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread." 

In  this  decree  that  looks  so  stern  and  cruel,  if 
we  look  deep,  we  will  see  God's  beneficent  hand. 
The  great  lesson  he  wished  to  teach  man  in  His 
fleeting  earth-life  was  obedience,  and  these  hard 
conditions  were  only  intended  to  break  man's 
wilful  and  rebellious  spirit,  which  conclusions  we 
draw  from  the  constant  repetition  throughout  His 
word  of  the  admonition  to  obedience  and  finally 
to  the  will  of  His  own  Son,  being  subject  to  the 
will  of  the  Father.  First  the  Son  sent  into  the 
world ;  second  doing  his  Father's  will,  and  lastly 
we  read,  "Though  he  were  his  son,  yet  learned  he 
obedience  by  the  things  he  suffered." 

For  nearly  two  thousand  years,  man  lived  un- 
der this  baneful  law  of  unrequited  toil  wringing 
from  the  sterile  soil  and  thorn-grown  hills  a  bare 
subsistence,  yet  in  all  this  time  God  was  unable  to 
conquer  the  rebellious  spirit  of  man,  who  going 
constantly  deeper  into  sin  and  degradation,  ever 


The  Emancipation  of  Mankind  35 

more  forgetful  of  God,  only  now  and  again  one 
more  noble  in  mind  and  spirit  that  remembered 
God,  until  at  last  in  His  infinite  mercy  He  de- 
vised a  plan  to  rid  the  world  of  all  rebellious 
people,  and  make  a  new  start  to  repeople  the 
world  with  the  most  noble  of  the  race,  the  flood 
came  on  as  God  had  ordained ;  only  a  remnant  of 
mankind  was  saved  from  the  great  flood.  But 
man  was  not  the  only  thing  that  perished  in  that 
flood.  When  the  waters  subsided  Noah  looked 
out  on  a  changed  world. 

The  raven  went  forth  while  the  waters  were 
still  on  the  earth  and  returned  not,  but  Noah 
would  not  trust  the  raven,  a  bird  of  unclean 
habits,  he  might  live  amid  surroundings  that  were 
not  fit  for  man,  and  again  Noah  sent  forth  the 
dove,  which  returned,  the  clean,  gentle  and  inno- 
cent bird.  Noah  knew  the  earth  was  not  yet 
ready  for  his  return.  Again  the  dove  was  sent 
forth,  not  to  return  again.  Noah  needed  no 
further  message,  the  gentle,  peaceful  dove  goes 
forth  to  build  her  nest  and  repeople  the  air  with 
birds  of  her  kind.  All  is  now  ready.  Noah  and 
his  family  descended  to  the  earth  which  is  now  in 
readiness  for  his  home.  After  due  course  of  time, 
Noah  perceived  there  had  come  over  the  earth  a 


36  The  Purpose  of  Life 

change,  no  more  the  sterile  soil  and  a  constant 
strife  with  the  thorns  and  thistles  that  sprang 
up  to  choke  and  destroy  the  meager  crops,  but 
instead  the  plantings  of  his  hand  flourished, 
and  his  fields  and  herds  produced  abundantly. 
From  the  gratefulness  of  his  heart  he  said,  "I 
will  build  an  altar  to  our  God  and  offer  a  sacri- 
fice to  him  for  all  his  benefits." 

Noah  offered  a  sacrifice  of  every  clean  beast 
and  every  clean  fowl  which  pleased  the  Lord  and 
he  said  in  his  heart,  "I  will  not  again  curse  the 
ground  any  more  for  man's  sake,"  for  I  cannot 
reform  man  by  poverty  and  hard  labor.  I  have 
tried  that  for  these  hundreds  of  years  and  it  has 
been  a  failure.  So  the  curse  was  removed  and  yet 
after  these  more  than  four  thousand  years  we  find 
men  quoting  scripture  and  still  believing  that  the 
curse  of  the  world  is  labor.  No !  the  earth  brings 
forth  abundantly.  God  rules  and  we  have  His 
promise  of  seed  time  and  harvest  and  the  forces 
of  nature  are  promised  to  co-operate  for  the  fruit- 
fulness  of  the  soil. 

It  is  only  sin,  and  the  ignorance  produced  by 
sm,  that  enslaves  the  race.  War,  famine  and  pes- 
tilence are  all  produced  by  sin,  the  curse  of  every 
race  and  clime.  God's  bounty  is  inexhaustible, 


The  Emancipation  of  Mankind          37 

the  present  natural  resources  of  which  we  now 
know  and  know  how  to  use  of  earth,  sea  and  air 
will  not  be  exhausted  until  others  of  which  we 
know  nothing  now  will  become  known.  The 
present  known  resources  of  supply  of  man's  need 
have  scarcely  been  touched.  Man  has  in  many 
cases  wasted  his  bounty  through  ignorance,  but 
these  defects  may  yet  be  remedied  by  a  more  gen- 
eral diffusion  of  knowledge,  both  of  the  intellect 
and  spirit.  We  are  God's  husbandmen,  whether 
we  labor  on  the  farm  or  in  the  factory,  mine, 
forest  or  upon  the  sea.  Our  labor  is  to  help 
beautify  this  world  for  the  habitation  of  man,  to 
build  him  houses  to  live  in,  to  furnish  those  homes 
and  make  them  pleasant,  food  to  eat  and  clothing 
to  wear  and  fuel  to  keep  us  warm.  God  has  pro- 
vided abundance  of  all  needed  material.  It  is  our 
privilege  to  use  them  in  co-operation  with  the 
spirit  of  brotherhood,  and,  all  diffused  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  will  change  the  earth  like  unto  the 
garden  of  the  Lord.  Isaiah  55:3,  10,  13,  "I  will 
make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you,  the  rain 
cometh  down  and  the  snow  from  Heaven  watereth 
the  earth  and  maketh  it  to  bring  forth  and  bud 
that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to 
the  eater."  "Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up 


38  The  Purpose  of  Life 

the  fir  tree  and  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  up 
the  myrtle  tree."  If  we  had  not  that  promise 
from  God  that  he  would  no  more  curse  the  earth, 
our  reason  would  teach  us,  we  only  have  to  look 
out  upon  the  world  to  see  His  wondrous  bounty, 
the  great  plains  and  fertile  valleys,  the  wooded 
hills  that  are  full  of  coal  and  iron  and  all  the  other 
varied  minerals,  lakes  of  oil  and  reservoirs  of 
gas;  the  lakes  and  rivers  full  of  fishes  and  the 
great  seas  with  their  vast  stores  of  wealth  all 
ready  to  man's  hand  to  be  taken  for  his  use.  When 
the  resources  of  the  eastern  world  were  becoming 
inadequate  for  the  needs  of  the  race,  God  put  into 
the  heart  of  a  man  of  iron  will  to  break  away  from 
the  superstition  of  the  age  and  brave  the  perils 
of  the  great  unknown  sea  with  the  consequence 
that  a  vast  continent  was  discovered,  that  then 
had  but  few  people  which  now  has  become  under 
His  providence,  the  granary  of  the  world.  Many 
times  by  our  ignorance  we  fail  to  achieve  the  de- 
sired results.  God  intended  us  to  use  our  minds 
as  well  as  our  hands  to  labor.  If  we  try  to  raise 
corn  where  wheat  was  intended  to  grow,  we  in  a 
large  measure  fail,  likewise,  wheat  where  we 
should  raise  cattle  or  sheep.  Not  all  land  is  for 
agricultural  purposes.  It  may  be  for  forests  to 


The  Emancipation  of  Mankind  39 

conserve  moisture,  break  the  force  of  winds,  or 
the  great  mountains  to  condense  the  moisture  and 
produce  rain.  All  these  are  working  together  for 
man's  good  in  perfect  harmony.  Who  would 
want  to  live  a  vegetable  existence?  Just  grow, 
like  Jonas'  gourd  vine,  come  up  in  a  day  and 
perish  in  a  day.  Just  think  of  a  city  of  people 
with  nothing  to  do.  It  is  very  hard  to  keep  them 
morally  decent  even  when  most  of  them  are  busy 
at  work;  what  would  it  be  if  they  were  not  re- 
quired to  work?  Work  is  not  only  every  man's 
duty,  but  also  his  pleasure,  and  what  a  partner 
he  has,  "Workers  with  God,"  in  His  great  garden 
that  extends  from  pole  to  pole  and  from  sea  to 
sea. 

The  only  slavery  of  man  is  sin ;  not  necessarily 
his  own  sin,  but  the  sins  of  the  entire  race  affect 
every  man.  Selfishness,  covetousness  and  lust 
bring  war.  War  brings  famine,  poverty,  sick- 
ness, misery  and  premature  death  to  untold  thou- 
sands; the  spirit  of  progress  and  enterprise  are 
destroyed.  The  staggering  cost  is  left  as  a  bur- 
den to  coming  generations.  "Come  let  us  reason 
together."  Banish  sin  in  our  lives  through  Jesus 
Christ,  take  new  courage  and  work  with  our  great 
Heavenly  Father  to  make  this  old  world  in  deed 
and  in  truth,  "the  Garden  of  the  Lord." 


40  The  Purpose  of  Life 

What  a  glorious  world  we  live  in!  What  won- 
drous beauty  all  around  ust  Our  great  forests, 
coal  beds,  oil  fields,  mountains  of  ore,  mines  of 
various  minerals  and  stone  quarries,  all  speak  of 
the  wonderful  provision  of  God  for  our  comfort ; 
and  when  we  view  our  great  prairies  and  river- 
valleys  and  mountain  slopes,  just  waiting  for  the 
hand  of  man  to  till  and  utilize  for  our  benefit; 
then  we  can  turn  with  new  assurance  to  the  Book 
of  books  where  God,  through  his  prophets  have 
told  us  of  His  glorious  bounty  in  our  behalf. 

In  Isaiah  we  read,  "For  the  Lord  shall  comfort 
Zion;  he  will  comfort  all  her  waste  places ;  and  he 
will  make  her  wilderness  like  Eden;  and  her  des- 
ert like  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  Joy  and  glad- 
ness shall  be  found  therein.  Thanksgiving  and 
the  voice  of  melody,  the  mountains  and  the  hills 
shall  break  forth  before  you  into  singing  and  all 
of  the  trees  of  the  fields  shall  clap  their  hands. 
Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree, 
and  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle 
tree,  and  it  shall  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  name  for 
an  everlasting  sign  that  shall  not  be  cut  off." 

This  land  that  was  desolate  is  become  like  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  Had  the  prophets  viewed 
America  in  the  twentieth  century  they  would  have 


The  Emancipation  of  Mankind  41 

beheld  the  greatest  garden  in  the  world  with  her 
varied  climate,  from  the  severe  cold  of  the  North, 
where  the  small  grains  develop  to  perfection  down 
through  the  states  with  their  more  moderate 
climate  to  the  greatest  corn  fields  in  all  the  world, 
on  to  the  gulf  and  Atlantic,  viewing  the  great 
plantations  of  cotton  and  sugar  and  rice,  the  beau- 
tiful fruit  orchards  and  vegetable  gardens  and  on 
to  the  Pacific  Coast,  with  its  mild  and  pleasant 
climate,  wonderful  for  fruit  and  grain,  gigantic 
forests  and  mountain  streams  abounding  in 
fishes,  back  across  the  Rockies  to  the  great  plains 
with  their  vast  ranges  for  cattle  and  sheep;  he 
would  then  have  exclaimed  as  did  the  Southern 
Queen  on  her  visit  to  the  home  of  God's  people  in 
the  days  of  Solomon.  "The  half  has  not  been 
told."  Could  we  but  banish  selfishness,  hatred 
and  lust  and  enthrone  our  common  Lord,  then 
would  come  to  pass,  in  one  country  at  least,  "the 
nations  of  earth  have  become  the  nations  of  our 
Lord  and  His  Christ." 

Whatever  your  place  in  life  may  be,  if  you 
render  service  to  make  the  surroundings  more 
pleasant  for  man's  home,  you  are  working  with 
God  in  keeping  the  world-garden,  just  as  our 
first  parents  were  commissioned  to  keep  the  gar- 


42  The  Purpose  of  Life 

den  of  Eden.  No  station  is  too  low  to  be  noticed 
by  our  Father,  but  if  our  labor  is  for  the  selfish 
vanity  of  ourselves  or  others,  we  then  lose  our  re- 
ward as  His  helpers.  The  miner  who  digs  the 
coal  or  iron,  or  the  mechanic  who  designs  and  con- 
structs the  implements  of  cultivation,  is  no  less 
a  gardener  than  the  men  or  women  who  use  the 
implements.  All  are  working  for  a  common  pur- 
pose. The  shopkeeper,  or  railroad  worker,  each 
is  contributing  to  a  common  purpose,  working 
with  God  to  supply  the  needs  of  men.  Our  ser- 
vice is  to  God  and  humanity  and  we  are  all  paid, 
if  our  service  is  rendered  willingly,  whether  our 
pay  check  is  large  or  small.  The  question  of  dis- 
tribution does  not  enter  into  God's  part  of  world- 
development,  that  is  the  social  and  ethical  that  is 
to  be  controlled  by  the  spiritual  law  of  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ROYAL  GUEST 

THERE  is  something  perverse  in  human  nature 
that  rebels  at  coercion  or  what  appears  to  be  coer- 
cion. If  there  is  a  reason  given  for  the  commands 
laid  down,  and  that  reason  meets  the  approval 
of  the  mind,  there  is  then  consent  to  obedience 
even  though  reluctantly  given.  But  we  are  ever 
saying  within  our  inmost  consciousness,  "Why 
may  I  not  seek  pleasure  and  avoid  pain?  Who  is 
there  who  can  tell  me  what  I  am  to  do  if  it  brings 
me  pleasure?  Am  I  not  free?33  But  here  is  where 
we  often  fail,  for  the  greatest  pleasure  is  not  of 
the  body,  but  of  the  mind.  Intellectual  pleasure, 
that  of  admiration  of  beauty  or  the  sublime,  the 
wonders  of  natural  phenomena ;  these  all  endure. 
Even  for  months  or  years  we  look  back  and  recall 
the  scenes  and  the  joy  returns.  Not  so  with  sen- 
sual pleasure.  It  is  but  for  the  passing  moment, 
gone  never  to  return;  each  new  pleasure  requir- 
ing a  new  sensation  to  produce. 

When  our  Creator  conceived  the  idea  of  mak- 

43 


44  The  Purpose  of  Life 

ing  a  world  and  peopling  it  with  a  new  order  of 
being,  possibly  unlike  any  other  in  all  his  uni- 
verse, he  made  them  male  and  female  and  gave 
them  powers  to  bring  forth  others  of  their  kind. 
He  pronounced  a  blessing  on  them  and  gave  them 
command.  "Be  ye  fruitful  and  multiply  and  re- 
plenish the  earth  and  have  dominion."  God  pro- 
nounced His  work  good,  and  very  good,  appar- 
ently well  satisfied  with  His  work.  But  the  man 
He  had  created  He  had  endowed  with  a  free  will, 
the  ability  to  choose  his  course  of  conduct.  Their 
home  was  beautiful  and  everything  given  to  meet 
their  needs  and  but  one  direct  command  that 
meant  restriction  of  their  liberty  given.  This  one 
command,  the  violation  of  which  proved  their  un- 
doing. The  same  evil  spirit  that  is  in  the  world 
now,  inciting  men  and  women  to  the  breaking  of 
laws,  was  there,  with  enticing  words  and  false 
promises.  He  induced  the  mother  of  the  race  to 
disobey  the  command  of  her  Creator;  but  first  of 
all  he  must  destroy  her  belief  in  the  good  will  of 
God  to  her.  Satan  told  her  God  was  a  liar  and 
jealous  of  her  ability,  she  succumbed  to  flattery 
and  disobeyed.  Adam  was  not  deceived,  but 
yielded  to  the  importunity  of  his  wife.  Both  be- 
came guilty  of  disobedience;  both  incurred  the 


The  Royal  Guest  45 

displeasure  of  God;  both  were  banished  from 
their  home.  The  punishment  given  to  the  woman 
for  her  part  in  the  fall  was  frequency  of  concep- 
tion and  sorrow. 

We  do  not  know  that  the  nature  of  woman 
was  changed,  but  from  reading,  we  presume  it 
was,  sexual  instincts  stronger  and  will  power  less, 
becoming  subject  to  the  will  of  man,  and  as  man 
became  base  and  animal,  woman  was  dragged 
down  to  the  level  of  a  slave  to  man's  passion  and 
a  bearer  of  children.  In  her  rebellion  at  such  a 
lot,  every  evil  impulse  was  developed  until  the 
race  was  hopelessly  depraved. 

Then  came  the  great  deluge ;  men  and  women 
were  all  destroyed  except  the  few  (Noah  and  his 
family)  of  the  noblest  and  best  that  God  could 
find  from  which  to  rebuild  the  race,  and  as  we 
read  the  subsequent  history  of  them  and  their  de- 
scendants, we  form  no  exalted  opinion  of  them. 
But  the  idea  of  God  and  his  right  and  power  to 
rule  had  not  been  entirely  lost.  The  place  of 
woman  in  the  world  socially  and  economically  had 
scarcely  changed  so  far  as  history  gives,  until  the 
call  of  Abraham. 

The  call  of  Abraham  is  an  epoch  in  develop- 
ment of  mankind,  a  new  endeavor  on  the  part  of 


46  The  Purpose  of  Life 

the  Creator  to  build  a  race  of  noble  men  and 
women  from  the  best  stock  He  could  select.  In 
the  three  generations,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
they  had  increased  from  two,  and  they  far  ad- 
vanced in  years,  (Isaac  a  child  of  their  old  age), 
to  seventy  souls  at  the  time  of  famine  and  the  de- 
scent of  Jacob  into  Egypt. 

God  was  with  them  in  their  new  home.  They 
were  given  the  best  of  the  land.  Though  one  of 
Jacob's  wives,  his  best  beloved — Rachel — gave 
up  her  life  at  the  birth  of  her  son  it  seems  that 
God  was  more  lenient  to  the  women  of  Israel 
than  to  the  women  of  the  other  people  around 
them.  Tribal  and  national  life  was  developing 
and  the  prosperity  and  perpetuation  of  any  peo- 
ple depended  upon  their  number,  and  we  read 
that  the  women  of  Israel  were  very  lively  and 
were  delivered  before  the  arrival  of  the  midwife; 
so  much  so  that  their  numbers  increased  greatly 
to  the  surprise  and  jealousy  of  the  Egyptians. 
Severe  repressive  measures  were  taken  to  limit  the 
numbers  of  the  Israelite  people.  It  is  one  of  the 
surprising  things  of  history  that  during  the  215 
years  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt, 
that  we  have  no  account  of  their  sins  or  any  re- 
bellion against  God,  though  the  latter  part  of 


The  Royal  Guest  47 

their  residence  was  in  slavery.  It  was  the  goodly 
vine  planted  in  a  fruitful  land  with  contentment 
and  great  gain,  especially  numerically,  and  we 
can  only  conjecture  what  would  have  been  the 
history  of  the  world  had  the  subsequent  life  of 
this  people  been  as  subject  to  the  will  of  God  as 
had  been  their  lives  during  the  215  years  in 
Egypt. 

After  the  flood,  and  Noah  had  come  from  the 
ark  to  again  take  possession  of  the  earth,  we  read 
that  God  had  given  in  His  heart  a  promise  to  no 
more  curse  the  earth  for  man's  sake.  Hard  work 
and  poor  pay  had  been  a  failure  in  the  reform  of 
man,  but  the  curse  pronounced  on  the  mothers 
of  the  human  family  remained,  but  subsequent 
events  seem  to  point  that  God  had  mitigated  the 
severity  of  the  penalty  on  the  mothers  of  his 
chosen  people,  at  least  up  until  the  time  of  their 
going  out  from  Egypt.  Disobedience  and  rebel- 
lion against  God  and  his  laws  had  but  one  result : 
increased  burdens.  If  obedient,  we  work  with 
God;  if  disobedient,  we  work  against  Him,  and 
we  know  who  will  be  defeated. 

The  history  of  the  chosen  people  of  God  from 
their  wilderness  journey  till  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah  is  a  history  of  rebellion,  sin  and  disgrace, 


48  The  Purpose  of  Life 

repentance,  forgiveness,  restoration,  repeated 
over  and  over,  again  and  again,  until  the  coming 
of  the  promised  Messiah,  and  the  rejection  and 
dispersion  of  the  Jewish  race. 

With  the  coming  of  Christ,  a  new  order  of 
social  life  was  established,  the  worth  of  the  indi- 
vidual man  was  proclaimed.  The  broken  relations 
between  God  and  man  were  restored.  Man  from 
this  time  forth  was  not  to  be  governed  as  a  supe- 
rior sort  of  animal,  but  the  spiritual  life  devel- 
oped and  a  full  knowledge  that  every  person, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  high  or  low,  learned  or 
unlearned,  was  a  soul  immortal,  to  live  through- 
out all  eternity  and  where  that  eternity  is  to  be 
spent  depends  entirely  on  our  own  relation  to 
God  here  in  this  life.  He  has  given  us  our  life- 
work  to  perform  and  any  shrinking  from  that 
work  is  displeasing  to  him.  This  truth  Christ 
tried  to  make  plain  in  the  parable  of  the  talents. 
To  one  he  gave  ten,  and  he  gained  other  ten;  to 
one  he  gave  five,  and  he  gained  other  five.  To 
one  he  gave  but  one  talent,  that  being  so  small 
he  seemed  to  think  it  would  not  be  noticed  by  the 
Master,  so  he  buried  the  talent — just  hid  it  away 
for  safe  keeping,  to  be  returned  to  the  Master  at 
His  coming,  but  what  a  surprise  awaited  him  at 


The  Royal  Guest  49 

his  Lord's  coining!  "Thou  wicked  and  slothful 
servant."  Now  note  the  punishment,  "Thou 
wicked  and  slothful  servant — cast  ye  (him)  into 
outer  darkness  where  there  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth."  Not  an  outbroken  sinner,  just 
slothful,  a  slacker,  but  his  penalty  is  that  of  the 
vilest  sinner.  Also  the  parable  of  the  pounds. 
Each  received  one  pound,  one  gained  ten  pounds 
—  a  phenomenal  increase.  One  gained  five 
pounds — a  good  increase ;  but  the  one  gained  none. 
He  likewise  received  the  condemnation,  "thou 
wicked  and  slothful  servant."  "Bring  hither  thou 
mine  enemies  which  would  not  that  I  should  reign 
over  them  and  slay  them  before  me,  (we  must  re- 
member that  at  that  time  a  master  had  the  power 
of  death  over  his  slaves) , which  is  equivalent  to  the 
banishment  of  the  unprofitable  servant  in  the 
parable  of  the  talents.  As  the  coming  of  Christ 
brought  a  new  order  in  the  relations  of  men,  so 
also  a  new  estimate  of  the  individual  that  ac- 
cepted Him  as  the  Christ  and  followed  him  as 
their  leader.  Notice,  "Inasmuch  as  you  have  done 
it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  my  brethren,  ye 
have  done  it  unto  me."  Then  he  reversed  the  dec- 
laration, saying,  "As  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of 
these,  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  not  unto  me." 


50  The  Purpose  of  Life 

Then  again  the  estimate  of  child  life  was  very 
low.  None  seemed  to  pay  much  attention  to  the 
children,  except  the  parents,  and  that  was  from 
instinctive  yearning  and  self  interest.  Where 
these  were  lacking,  the  child  was  an  outcast  in- 
deed, subject  to  slavery  to  anyone  who  wished. 
But  Christ  saw  in  the  child  possibilities  which 
the  world  had  never  seen.  For  instance,  where 
he  said,  "Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as 
a  little  child,  ye  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven." 

Again  when  the  children  were  brought  to  him 
for  his  blessing  and  was  forbidden  of  the  disciples 
he  said,  "Suffer  it  to  be  so,  that  is,  let  them  come, 
for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  But 
Christ  reached  his  climax  in  his  extolling  of  child- 
hood when  he  declared,  "He  that  receiveth  one 
such  little  child  in  my  name,  receiveth  me,  and  he 
that  receiveth  me,  receiveth  him  that  sent  me." 

The  condition  of  this  exaltation  is  to  receive  in 
His  name,  these  children  as  his.  He  is  not  here 
to  render  them  service,  but  if  we  take  his  place 
we  are  receiving  the  most  royal  guest  that  is  pos- 
sible to  man.  But  the  first  condition  is  that  in 
character  we  be  like  Christ. 

In  view  of  these  statements  we  then  behold  the 


The  Royal  Guest  51 

glorified  office  of  motherhood,  the  young  wife  who 
has  entered  the  marriage  stage  with  fear  and 
trembling  at  the  prospect  of  motherhood,  may 
well  lose  her  fear  and  rejoice  in  the  possibilities 
that  God  has  given  her.  Millions  of  people,  al- 
most, if  not  quite,  worship  the  mother  of  our 
Savior  as  the  Holy  Virgin  and  the  birthplace  of 
the  Christ  child  is  revered  in  all  the  world  where 
His  name  is  known,  and  yet  Christ's  revelations 
make  every  mother  holy,  who  lives  a  holy  life  and 
in  her  child  is  the  Christ  child  born  anew,  the 
most  royal  guest  of  all  the  ages,  and  the  husband 
and  father  as  he  goes  forth  to  toil  for  their  sup- 
port, goes  knowing,  if  his  life  is  given  wholly 
into  God's  keeping,  that  his  home  is  the  palace 
of  a  king  however  humble  that  home  may  be. 
The  only  condition  is  an  unconditional  surrender 
to  God.  Labor  becomes  light  for  those  we  love, 
and  not  alone  because  they  are  ours  and  we  love 
them,  but  God  has  given  us  a  great  commission 
as  Pharaoh  did  to  the  mother  of  the  babe  of  the 
Nile,  "Take  this  child  and  raise  it  for  me  and  I 
will  give  you  your  wages."  That  babe  was  raised 
to  be  an  earthly  king,  but  the  babe  of  the  Christian 
father  and  mother  is  to  be  raised  and  trained  to  be 
a  citizen  of  Heaven,  a  joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ 
of  all  the  glories  of  the  celestial  world. 


52  The  Purpose  of  Life 

In  view  of  these  marvelous  declarations  of  our 
great  Lord  and  Master,  we  no  more  can  look  on 
the  task  of  motherhood  as  a  burden,  but  as  a 
great  privilege  to  be  coveted  instead  of  shunned. 
Christ  foresaw  a  day  in  the  advancement  of  civili- 
zation, or  retrogression  of  Christianity,  that 
would  bring  grief  and  banishment  from  the 
presence  of  the  angels  and  the  Joys  of  Heaven. 

On  his  way  to  Calvary,  as  the  people  who  pro- 
fessed to  love  him  were  weeping  and  wailing, 
Christ  gave  His  last  and  possibly  only  prophecy 
-Luke  23:28,  29. 

"For  behold  the  days  are  coming  in  which  they 
shall  say,  Blessed  are  the  barren  and  the  wombs 
that  never  bare  and  the  paps  that  never  gave 
suck."  Then  shall  they  begin  to  say  to  the  moun- 
tains, "Fall  on  us,  and  to  the  hills  cover  us.  For 
if  they  do  these  things  in  a  green  tree,  what  shall 
be  done  in  a  dry?"  In  other  words,  if  those  who 
profess  to  love  and  follow  me  exalt  the  childless 
marriage,  to  what  extreme  of  sin  will  the  ungodly 
world  descend?  However  reluctant  to  admit  it, 
we  are  now  in  the  commencement  of  that  period 
of  which  Christ  prophesied,  and  strange  as  it  may 
be,  this  great  sin  is  most  prevalent  among  the 
most  learned  and  well  placed  financially.  God 


The  Royal  Guest  53 

has  never  withdrawn  his  command  to  man.  "Be 
fruitful  and  multiply."  But  we  are  wont  to  do 
our  reasoning  and  frame  excuses  for  shirking  re- 
sponsibility, not  to  man  alone,  but  to  God.  But 
will  God  accept  our  pleas?  Christ  looked  down 
the  ages  and  .saw  the  growing  selfishness  of  man 
and  that  the  refusing  to  bear  offspring  is  only 
the  desire  to  live  in  pleasure  and  the  word  says, 
"She  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she 
lives."  The  purpose  of  men  and  women  in  mar- 
ried life  is  children,  and  aside  from  physical  defect 
is  there  an  excuse  that  we  can  render  to  God?  We 
may  frame  an  excuse  that  will  look  plausible  to 
ourselves  or  to  the  world,  but  we,  nor  they,  are  to 
be  our  judge.  And  in  the  face  of  so  plain  a  declar- 
ation as  that  given  by  Christ,  we  may  well  know 
now  what  the  fate  of  the  slacker  will  be,  "Not 
everyone  that  sayeth  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  will 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  father  which  is  in  Heaven." 
There  is  no  need  to  go  into  detail  or  statistics 
to  prove  that  childless  marriage  is  on  the  increase. 
Quality  row  in  any  town  or  city  is  too  silent  wit- 
ness to  this  fact  to  need  any  rebuttal.  Many 
whole  streets  could  scarcely  furnish  children 
enough  to  man  a  tennis  court,  and  now  this  same 


54  The  Purpose  of  Life 

condition  is  moving  to  the  side  streets  and  coun- 
try homes.  The  American  people  of  three  and 
four  generations  standing,  are  scarcely  holding 
their  own  or  are  actually  diminishing.  The  popu- 
lation is  being  recruited  by  foreign  immigration 
and  children  of  foreign  emigrants.  But  we  ex- 
claim, "What  is  my  private  affairs  to  anyone 
else?"  We  answer  that  by  saying,  "Why  shall 
we  preach  the  gospel  to  an  unsaved  people  or 
approach  an  unsaved  man  or  woman  and  ask 
them  to  come  to  Christ?"  Though  you  profess  to 
be  a  Christian,  live  correct  moral  lives  outwardly 
and  are  yet  shirking  your  duty  to  God  and  the 
race,  you  are  equally  lost  so  far  as  your  soul  is 
concerned.  It  is  not  wholly  a  matter  between  you 
and  your  God,  as  you  are  failing  to  contribute  to 
the  future  welfare  of  the  race  and  losing  the  op- 
portunity of  soul  development  by  self  denial  that 
becomes  necessary  to  rear  and  train  a  family. 

An  excuse  of  ignorance  of  God's  demands 
would  not  be  accepted  in  any  court  for  "Igno- 
rance of  the  law  excuses  no  man."  The  admonition 
of  Paul  is  emphatic.  In  Titus  we  read,  "A  bishop 
must  be  blameless,  the  husband  of  one  wife,  hav- 
ing faithful  children,  and  having  his  children  in 
subjection."  An  example  to  the  children  of  God 
and  if  an  example,  then  others  should  follow. 


The  Royal  Guest  55 

The  women  are  promised  immunity  or  mitiga- 
tion of  suffering  if  they  are  wholly  and  truly 
God's.  Even  if  some  are  called  to  give  their  lives 
for  the  life  of  their  child.  God  has  promised  to 
care  for  them  and  they  only  the  sooner  receive 
the  reward  of  a  righteous  life.  In  every  place  the 
family  is  not  child  but  children,  there  must  be 
two  or  more  to  prevent  a  decrease  of  population, 
but  we  are  not  seeking  a  limit,  that  is  a  question 
for  you  to  settle  alone  with  God,  and  going 
through  a  long  married  life  as  a  slacker  and  then 
in  old  age  repenting,  would  be  like  stealing  a 
horse  and  keeping  the  horse  until  dead  and  then 
repenting. 

The  penalty  of  disobedience  is  the  same  for  the 
buried  talent  as  the  buried  pound  or  covetousness 
or  adultery,  or  any  other  of  the  more  outbroken 
sins  as  that  pronounced  against  the  slacker  in  his 
or  her  marital  relations.  "There  is  a  way  that 
seemeth  right,  but  the  end  thereof  is  the  ways  of 
death." 

Many  of  the  weaker  and  less  informed  are  at- 
tempting to  follow  the  example  of  those  who 
style  themselves  aristocrats,  and  have  fallen  into 
ways  that  have  cost  the  lives  of  untold  numbers 
of  prospective  mothers.  Someone  must  stand 
sponsor  for  their  death. 


56  The  Purpose  of  Life 

If  it  should  be  that  this  little  volume  should 
fall  into  the  hands  of  someone  who  has  been  de- 
prived of  the  great  blessing  of  children  in  your 
home,  can  you  not  find  it  possible  to  open  your 
heart  and  home  to  some  poor  child  that  has  no 
home?  Would  you  not  wish  to  entertain  a  royal 
guest  in  the  name  of  our  great  Lord  and  Master? 
You  are  not  to  live  this  life  for  selfish  ends,  or  an 
easy  time  when  others  need  your  help.  These 
little  ones  belong  to  God.  An  institution  may 
clothe  and  feed  and  educate  these  children,  but 
it  cannot  give  them  a  father's  and  mother's  love. 

Any  attempt  to  thwart  the  will  of  God  in 
taking  the  life  of  an  unborn  child  may  be  a 
greater  crime  than  taking  the  life  of  a  full  grown 
man  or  woman.  The  Prophet  Jeremiah  says  in 
Jeremiah  1 :4,  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him  saying,  "Before  I  formed  thee  *  *  *  I 
knew  thee,  and  before  thou  comest  forth  of  the 
womb  I  sanctified  thee  and  I  ordained  thee  a 
prophet  unto  the  nations." 

We  know  not  what  place  God  may  have  in  re- 
serve for  that  unborn  babe.  Likewise  David  in 
the  139  Psalm,  and  16  Verse,  says,  "Thine  eyes 
did  see  my  substance,  yet  being  unperfect  and  in 
thy  book  all  my  members  were  written,  which  in 


The  Royal  Guest  57 

continuance  were  fashioned,  when  as  yet  there 
was  none  of  them."  If  God  knew  Jeremiah  and 
David  and  Job  when  they  were  conceived,  what 
assurance  have  we  that  he  does  not  know  every 
other  unborn  child? 

Now  as  we  are  building  our  lives  on  God's 
word,  we  must  live  according  to  that  word  or  fail, 
and  if  we  are  not  building  on  the  word  of  God, 
what  are  we  building  on  but  sand  for  no  other 
faith  will  stand  the  test?  It  must  go  down  before 
the  great  ideals  as  revealed  in  Christ,  and  yet 
these  are  only  such  as  may  be  attained  by  every- 
one, not  of  self,  but  by  the  unfolding  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 


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